Own Your Past Change Your Future Quotes

“Stories also told me that if I ever stumbled, got hurt, or got scared, I could just numb, scroll, eat, lift, hunt and fish, video game, smoke, golf, drink, Netflix, flirt, gossip, or study myself away from reality. The story said: Just. Keep. Going. So I kept going. Faster and faster. But I never asked myself the magic question . . . What do I want for my one, short, precious life?”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“You get to decide who hurts your feelings. You get to decide who pierces your heart, frustrates you, and annoys you. People can take away your livelihood, your possessions, and even your life—but you get to choose who hurts you.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“was born and raised in Texas, home of the Lone Ranger. I was trained to believe that I could be well all by myself. That I could only count on me. That I did not need other people. This story is a lie.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“My story is your story and your story is my story. And everyone is struggling.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“with “This is a class assignment,” and (2) they had to engage the interactions with a straight face. They couldn’t give away the punchline. The exchanges went something like this: Students (walking in a group toward a stranger in a mall): “Excuse me, sir!” Stranger (looking around and awkwardly shifting bags of clothes): “Uhh, yeah? Me?” Students: “Yes! You. I was walking by, saw you, and wondered: Will you be my friend? Can I see pictures of your family? What are your political preferences? Can I see the pictures of your tattoos? What are your religious preferences? Why? Are you pro-choice? How come? Who are your favorite musicians? We’re going to read you a list of probing, introspective quotes, and you simply give us a thumbs up or a thumbs down if you like them or don’t like them. If you feel angry about a quote, tell us why.” And so on. My students had to video each interaction. And yes, it was as awkward and cringey as you can imagine. According to the papers they had to write after the fact, the assignment stirred up quite a bit of reflection. In a few short years, my students had come to believe they had “friends” because they knew some information about people. They thought they were connecting with those people. The exercise helped them see that our social media exchanges are anything but normal. The thumbs ups and thumbs downs are anything but connecting. The reality is that most of us don’t have any friends. Until recently, friendship was about enduring the awkwardness and ugliness of human”
― Dr. John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Communication is not connection. Communication is the transfer of information. Connection is the mutual weight bearing of one another's burdens and the celebrating of one another's joys.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“I’m on a relentless, never-ending search for beauty. I look to consume the good things in life—of which there are many. I spend as much time as possible in nature.104”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“The great Eric Thomas says if you have talk to more than three people about the same problem, you don't want help. You want attention.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Discipline is the antidote to excuses. Discipline is just a decision made over and over and again. In the face of discipline, excuses don't matter.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“You cannot be well alone.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“The stories we tell ourselves are the most powerful stories of all.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“You have to create distance between your thoughts and your body. The best way to do this is to write your stories down. Get them out of your body and onto paper.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“I'm not avoiding the truth. I am daring to walk right into the heart of it.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Sometimes my pain is my fault. It is a result of my poor choices. Something I did. Something I’m doing. And it doesn’t matter why I did them—it only matters that I did them.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“But communication is not connection. Communication is the transfer of information. Connection is the mutual weight-bearing of one another’s burdens and the celebrating of one another’s joys.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Pioneering psychologist Rollo May said that “courage, whether the soldier’s courage in risking death or the child’s in going off to school, means the power to let go of the familiar and the secure. Courage is required not only in a person’s occasional crucial decision for his own freedom, but in the little hour-to-hour decisions.”8”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“If you have to talk to more than three people about the same problem, you don’t want help, you want attention.”120”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“our culture has become one of complaining, whining, and indecision. A culture of excuse makers. We overthink too much. We Google problems for hours and days. We talk about what we might do or not do with every person who will listen. We watch hundreds of videos or listen to numerous podcasts trying to “hack” our way into a better version of our lackluster life.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Not taking action is an action. Doing nothing is an action.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Choosing not to forgive someone is like poisoning yourself and hoping that other person will die.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Rumination is an utter waste of your time. It’s just not going to work. It’s like using a hammer to saw through a plank of wood. It’s the wrong tool for any job.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“It’s vitally important for us to remember that we get to choose what to think. Why? Because our thoughts are real. I don’t mean “real” in the sense of being “true” (although that may be the case). I mean “real” as in they are physical. Your thoughts are created and sustained within your brain as electrical impulses, which means they exist in a physical space. Hormones and synapses and electricity are firing and connecting and creating. Dr. Caroline Leaf has said it this way: “Thoughts are real things. And, like real things, they generate energy: little packets of energy called photons, which are the fundamental particles of light.”102”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Who was I allowing to hurt my feelings right now? My blood ran cold. Everyone. I let everyone hurt my feelings.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“5. Get out of your house and go where other people are. It sounds simple, but if you want to get connected with other people—or expand and deepen your current pool of friendships—you’re going to have to leave your home and go where other people are gathered. Yes, you heard me right. You have to leave your house. Turn off the screens. Stop bingeing. Be intentional about being around people. In this scenario, you don’t have to do any planning or recruiting. You just show up.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Most people in Western culture are starved for true friendship. Some research shows up to 75 percent of people don’t have anyone they could call for help in the middle of a crisis.96 It’s why we have hotlines.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Bad times will come for all of us. Good times will come for all of us as well. As the great line goes, we don’t need to be fixed . . . we need a witness.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“We don’t greet each other with the best things going on in our lives—we hide them—and greet each other instead with the dire news or the pessimistic stock market predictions. We are a culture of whiners and complainers.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“Trauma and abuse send signals to your brain that other people are dangerous and can’t be trusted. Parts of your brain identify trusting relationships as not safe. At the same time, you and I need trusting relationships to breathe. We need connection to survive. A paralyzing dilemma.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness

“When you’ve been without people for a long time, or when your greatest comfort is in solitude, connection can be hard.”
― John Delony, Own Your Past Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health & Wellness